There was 5:20 remaining in the third quarter, New Orleans Hornets down 11, when Monty Williams summoned the last man from the bench, the only player who’d yet to remove his warmups.

As Marcus Thornton made his way to the scorer’s table to check in, the energy level at the New Orleans Arena rose palpably, the crowd stirred from the slumber of what had been a sluggish performance for the home team against the inconsistent Memphis Grizzlies.

Suddenly, there seemed to be hope. And Marcus Thornton didn’t want to disappoint.

Thornton scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, then six more in overtime, including the winning layup moments after making a key defensive deflection on a Grizzlies’ inbound pass as the Hornets rallied for an improbable 103-102 overtime victory, their sixth straight, and third overtime victory in six games.

Thornton, who has struggled to earn new coach Monty Williams’ confidence, never lost the adulation of the crowd — Wednesday night’s body count of 15,951 lowers the benchmark total for the last two home games this month to a makeable average of 14,891 – as he persevered through sometimes long stretches of inactivity.

“That’s every time,” Thornton said of the fans’ throaty approval of his first appearance. “The fans are great. That’s what keeps me going. I tell people when I’m tired out there, and see the fans cheering me on, that gives me an extra boost. I appreciate them a lot.”

As it has during the Hornets’ current winning streak, a familiar yet troubling trend continued: New Orleans had to battle back from a deficit, this time a 15-point Grizzlies’ lead, to ensure a victory.

Memphis, true to form, was pounding away inside against the Hornets, enjoying a 52-46 advantage in the lane.

But bolstered by Thornton’s energy, and recognition of yet another mountain to climb, the Hornets switched gears late in the third quarter, closing on an 18-3 run that tied the score at 67 heading into the fourth.

“We were joking about it,” said guard Chris Paul. “It’s like we wait until we get down 15 to turn it on sometimes. I looked up at the clock and it said 62-47. And at that time, we realized it was getting embarrassing. And we picked it up.”

Twice, once with 15.2 seconds to go in regulation, and again with 14.5 seconds to go in overtime, Memphis failed to cleanly inbound a sideline out of bounds play.

In the fourth quarter, with the score tied at 92, Trevor Ariza stripped the ball from Mike Conley and the Grizzlies could not get off a potential game-winning shot.

In overtime, Thornton tipped the ball away on Conley’s inbounds pass, Ariza tipped it to Paul, who sprinted up court and looked for Emeka Okafor, who somehow found sprinting Thornton with a pass that Thornton took in for the winning layup.

“The only breakdown was us not throwing the ball to our team when all we had to do was in-bound the ball and get fouled,” Hollins said. “We didn’t take care of the ball. Guys making the plays when you’re supposed to make in those situations. That’s how you win those games. That was our game to win. All we had to do was get it in and they foul. And if we couldn’t get it in, call time out. We had two time outs yet. Instead of throwing the ball to the other team, we should throw it to our team.”

Thornton said he timed out the last inbounds play and knew Conley was close to a five-second violation.

“I just counted the seconds in my head,” Thornton said. “When he got to four, I knew he had to get it off. I kind of sensed that all the players were behind me to my left. So I just kind of jumped to that side and got a hand on it.”

Making the layup on the other end was equally huge.

“Yeah,” Thornton said, grinning. “ ’Preciate that, Mek.”

Three Hornets had double-doubles: Okafor had 11 points and 11 rebounds, David West had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Paul had 20 points and 12 assists.

But it was the 16th and 17th points from Thornton that brought the biggest reaction of the night, including the one from Williams, who leaped in the air and pumped his fist when Thornton’s winning layup found the bottom of the net.

“I’m happy for him,” Williams said. “He and I have had rough times since I signed. I’ve been up his tail like a you-know-what. And I want him to succeed. Sometimes I think he thinks I’m his worst enemy. It does me no good if he’s not playing well. I want him to do well. When he has those moments . . . . if he knew how happy I was for him, he’d be surprised.

“When he made that basket, I was happy for him. You can’t draw it up any better than what he had tonight. To be close to home, to come in and help the home town team and hit the game-winning shot, you can’t draw that stuff up. I probably lost my composure a little bit,” Williams said, smiling. “I’ll get it back.”